Intel Corp (INTC.O) agreed to buy Altera Corp (ALTR.O) for $16.7 billion as the world’s biggest chipmaker seeks to make up for slowing demand from the PC industry by expanding its line-up of higher-margin chips used in data centres. By combining with Altera, Intel will be able to bundle its processing chips with the smaller company’s programmable chips, which are used, among other things, to speed up […]
|By Fiona Maharg-Bravo |Big Oil is too confident about crude prices. After a 40 percent rally from January’s six-year low, the momentum has been on the upside. But the current prices – $65 a barrel for Brent and $60 for WTI – look more like a ceiling than a floor. That is not what many insiders seem to think. Some oil service companies expect mid-$70s Brent by […]
By JODI RUDOREN May 31, 2015 JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that his country faces “an international campaign to blacken its name” based not on his policies toward the Palestinians but “connected to our very existence,” likening the mounting boycott movement to anti-Semitic “libels” of earlier eras. Speaking to his cabinet after Israel’s successful diplomatic blitz to block a Palestinian bid to suspend […]
Pakistani volunteers tried to identify the bodies of some of the 22 people killed Friday night in attacks in Baluchistan. By SALMAN MASOOD and ZIA ur-REHMAN May 30, 2015 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Tensions were running high on Saturday in southwestern Pakistan after dozens of heavily armed gunmen, wearing the uniforms of security forces, stopped two buses, singled out ethnic Pashtuns and fatally shot at least 22 of them on Friday night. […]
UAE. The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]
UAE. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, achieved its strongest financial results to date in 2014, posting a net profit of US$ 73 million on total revenues of US$ 7.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent and 26.7 per cent respectively over the previous year. 2014 PEFORMANCE SUMMARY OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS *The above results represent the standalone airline business within the newly formed Etihad […]
ABU DHABI // Dogs are a man’s best friend – until the summer holiday season comes around. Animal charities say that this year they are again stretched to breaking point having to care for dogs that have been abandoned by their owners. Jackie Ratcliffe, chairwoman of K9 Friends dog shelter in Dubai, said she hears the same excuses at the start of every summer as pet owners […]
Mena M&A value rises 9pc to $8.9bn in Q1 DUBAI, 23 days ago Announced deal value in Mena increased to $8.9 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015 from $8.2 billion during the same period last year, marking an increase of 9 per cent, a report said. In Q1 2015, 90 deals were announced as compared with 89 deals in Q1 2014, according to the Q1 […]
Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO.O) agreed on Thursday to buy Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O) for $37 billion in the largest merger of chipmakers ever, turning a lesser known company run by a ferocious dealmaker into one of the biggest industry players. Avago, which serves the wireless and industrial markets, is offering Broadcom shareholders $17 billion in cash and Avago shares valued at $20 billion. Broadcom is best known for […]
A picture illustration shows Apple Inc’s logo reflected in a person’s eye, in central Bosnian town of Zenica, March 13, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Files NEW YORK A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Apple Inc’s bid to disqualify an antitrust compliance monitor appointed after the technology company was found liable for conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices. While saying some allegations against the monitor Michael Bromwich […]
A worker adjusts the logo at the stand of Huawei at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover March 15, 2015. Reuters/Morris Mac Matzen/Files BANGKOK China’s Huawei Technologies, the world’s No. 2 telecom equipment maker, expects total shipments of smartphones in southeast Asia to rise 160 percent to 8 million units in 2015, boosted by strong demand in Myanmar, it said on Thursday. In the first quarter, Huawei […]
Dubai Islamic Bank has priced a $750 million sukuk with a five year lifespan, a document from arranger banks said on Wednesday, with the cost of borrowing reduced by significant investor demand. The wakala-structured deal, in which one party manages assets on behalf of another, was completed at a spread of 125 basis points over midswaps and carried a profit rate of 2.921 percent, the document said. […]
By RICK GLADSTONE May 27, 2015 France challenged Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday over a disputed element of the Iranian nuclear talks, asserting that it would not sign any pact unless Iran allowed all its nuclear installations, including military sites, to be inspected. The French position was stated by the foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, just as negotiations reconvened in Vienna with the aim of reaching a final agreement by […]
By JODI RUDOREN May 26, 2015 JERUSALEM — Hinting at a new strategy as he starts his fourth term with a more conservative coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told the European Union’s foreign policy chief that he wants to negotiate with the Palestinians over which settlements in the occupied West Bank would be annexed by Israel, officials said Tuesday. Palestinian leaders quickly rejected the idea as a […]
Crude oil prices were broadly unchanged in early trading on Tuesday, as firm demand supported and ample supply dragged, but analysts said there were signs that a recent rally was running out of steam. Robust demand in Asia as well as due to the driving season in the United States is being met by near record output, especially from the Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), although […]
JORDAN. Technology will be a “game changer” in tackling youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa’s emerging Digital Economy, but only if the government, private, and people sectors collaborate effectively, according to a new report released on the eve of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 2015. The report “Re-Dynamizing the Job Machine: Technology-Driven Transformation of Labor Markets in […]
|By Alaa Alghamdi|I feel very proud of our King that, several weeks ago, he took a stand in favour of equality and against racism, even when it meant alienating a family member. King Salman promptly forbade his kin to appear in televised media, as he considered him a poor spokesperson for the royal family and for our country. King Salman made a judicious decision. Perhaps he, like […]
SYRIA. Islamic State fighters tightened their grip on the historic Syrian city of Palmyra on Thursday and overran Iraqi government defenses east of Ramadi, the provincial capital that they seized five days earlier. The twin successes not only pile pressure on Damascus and Baghdad but throw doubt on a U.S. strategy of relying almost exclusively on air strikes to support the fight against Islamic State. U.S. and […]
An anonymous painting of Turkish Emperor Mahmud II leading his troops. By DAVID MOTADEL May 23, 2015 CAMBRIDGE, England — THE last several months have brought a dramatic escalation in conflict across the Middle East, almost all of it involving tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims — which are in turn fueled by a power struggle between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia for regional supremacy. Tehran runs a […]
UAE. Landmark real estate regulatory changes including the UAE-wide Federal Mortgage Cap and Dubai’s doubling of Property Registration Fees last year, which was aimed at curbing speculative activity, have together gradually and successfully contained a market that was in danger of overheating with the level of transactional activity now dramatically reduced, according to latest research released by international real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons Spring 2015 Dubai Residential […]
Market research firm Gartner Inc. on Thursday estimated that 7.3 million Chromebooks would be sold this year, fueled mostly by demand from the education industry. Gartner said its sales estimate was an increase of 27 percent from 2014, when the education industry accounted for 72 percent of sales. Chromebooks, the computers powered by Google’s Chrome operating system, are designed to be used primarily to access the Internet […]
|TAP Special| Faced with a continued upswing in capacity creation, Dubai hospitality sector is under pressure and is forced to continuously make price adjustments to remain competitive. This has already meant lower revenues, posing a question mark over the hotel sector’s performance. According to the latest Hotel Intelligence report of JLL, performance of the hospitality sector in Dubai is expected to remain under pressure this year. This […]
|By TAP Staff| The sale of residential properties in Dubai may continue to slide by one to five percent in the first half of this year, according to a report for Deloitte Financial Advisory. But the report forecasts a pickup in the second part of the year. It added that super prime malls will experience further growth in tourist numbers whilst residents will drive demand for convenience […]
TOKYO—Japan’s Inpex Corp. has secured a 5% stake in Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, or ADCO, one of the Gulf nation’s biggest oil concessions, becoming the second foreign stakeholder after France’s Total SA . The move suggests that as part of Tokyo’s efforts to shore up its energy supplies, the partly state-owned Japanese energy company was prepared to pay a hefty signing-on fee that other […]
